


Wheels Down

by oddledodle



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 21:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19343050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddledodle/pseuds/oddledodle
Summary: The team's worst nightmare happens: the jet goes down in the middle of nowhere.Season 14 cast





	1. Chapter 1

The weather doesn't play in favor of the Behavioral Analysis Unit most days. Sometimes it's raining, sometimes it's so hot I can feel my brain baking inside my skull. 

I was right seven years ago, like I usually am. Most plane crashes aren't caused by turbulence; turbulence does nothing but make us anxious or sick, in most cases. 

Thunderstorms cause most plane crashes, but serial killers don't check the weather before they embark on their killing sprees. They don't care how bad the flight is from the East Coast of Virginia to California. 

I'm not a bad flyer. I've been on two flights a week for the past fifteen years of my life. I've honestly spent more time on the jet than I have in my own car.

I was never prepared to hear the loud beeping from the cabin meaning the signals were lost. I was never prepared to actually use the oxygen masks that we'd been reminded of every time we boarded this jet. 

Nothing could have prepared me for the sinking feeling in my stomach when I felt the plane dangerously drift towards the ground.

-

I wake up to the sound of David Rossi's screaming. The first thing I can sense is pain- my entire body is aching, but pain is shooting down my right leg. I look around. 

The jet is empty, besides me. Half of the roof has been torn off, but besides that, most everything in here is still in tact. I can feel rain pummeling down on my head from the open space in the roof. 

I unbuckle my seatbelt. "Rossi?" I shout. Like I'm half-expecting to, I hear no response. I feel like I'm in a waking dream; everything is fuzzy: my vision, my hearing. It doesn't feel real. 

I repeat myself, but louder. "Rossi?"

Still, nothing. I can't hear him anymore. I don't know if it's because of the ringing or if he's actually quiet. Where is everyone? 

I try to stand up, but I've grossly underestimated how painful trying to walk would be. I stumble into the seat in front of me, but I've decided I need to get off of this plane. 

I ignore the pain as I use the seats that are left to pull myself forward. 

I grab a first aid kit out of an open cubby that I assume I would definitely need. I could live with feeling like this, but from what I heard Rossi must be much worse off. 

"Rossi?" I yell once again. When I get to the front door of the jet, I thank whatever gods there are that the stairs are still attached. 

The ringing in my ears is starting to subside. I try to listen for any sign of my friends, but I can't hear any, until I find Davis Rossi. He's laying down a few feet from the plane's exit. I see a lot of blood, so I scramble to get to him with the first aid kit. "Rossi! Are you okay?"

"Kid," he whispers. "Go find them. I'll be fine."

"Find who? Where is everybody?" I ask. I ignore what Rossi told me to do and start looking for something that can be useful. 

Because most of the blood is on his shirt, I ask Rossi to lift his shirt up. The little medical training I've gathered from various books might not be fantastic, but I feel like trying to help him is a better idea than not. 

He lifts up his shirt and I can see a huge gash in his stomach. It's grotesque- a worse injury than I've ever seen a living human being have. 

I don't think I can stop the bleeding with ace bandages and Neosporin, but I have to try. "Is it that bad?" Rossi asks. 

"Y-yeah." I take the small bottle of rubbing alcohol from the sad excuse for a first aid kit and uncap it. 

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Sanitizing it. If the blood loss doesn't kill you, an infection-"

"No. Don't you dare come near me with that."

I stare at him with a blank expression. Does he want to die? Maybe he's afraid of the stinging pain. 

I look Rossi dead in the eyes as I poor rubbing alcohol onto his wound. I flinch as he grits his teeth, trying to find a way to process the pain. 

I take a gauze pad and stick it over the gash, but besides what I've already done, there's nothing more I can do. "I'm going to try to move you, okay?" I say. 

"Kid, no offense, but you can barely lift your own suit case. I can walk."

I watch as Rossi half-craws over to the side of the jet. He sits with his back against the dented metal. "I'll be fine here. Go find everyone else," he repeats. 

I sigh, but he's right. It's not a great use of my time to be watching him when I could be finding the rest of my team. 

I realize I still have my messenger bag. I dig through it, hoping to find something- anything that would help, but all I find is my bottle of water. I set it down next to him and he gives me a face. 

Even in this condition, Rossi is still Rossi.


	2. Chapter 2

In hindsight, I shouldn't have left. I'm in full panic mode. I left the jet; I left _Rossi_ all alone and now I'm wandering through dense forest with nothing but my messenger bag.

I'm so stupid. I don't have any way of leaving a trail behind me, so I could easily get lost. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for. I guess I'm looking for any sign of the rest of my team.

I've been walking in circles for what feels like an hour. I swear I'm starting to lose it. The pain in my leg is almost completely gone, but my heart is racing.

I see the bright wing of the plane blinding my vision, and I feel like punching something. I'm so tired of walking in circles.

I decide to take a new direction. I loop around the back of the plane and start walking.

It's only a fifteen minute walk before I find what I've been looking for. It's JJ and Emily. "Oh thank god," JJ says.

"Are you guys okay?" I ask. JJ and Emily are huddled together. The missing plane seats are scattered around, which explains a lot.

"I think I have a concussion," Emily says. "Spencer, are you injured? You're bleeding."

"It's not my blood." I'd gotten a lot of blood on my hands when I was trying to help Rossi.

"Is everyone else okay?" JJ asks.

"I don't know," I say. "I thought you knew where they were. I only know where Rossi is. He's cut pretty bad."

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. I- I hope so. I found a first aid kit. I don't know if I stopped the bleeding but at least he won't get an infection."

"Thank god," Emily sighs. "We need to find everyone else."

"Tara? Matt?" I yell. "Luke?"

"Yeah, like that's gonna work," JJ rolls her eyes.

"Reid?" I hear Tara shout from far off. 

I give JJ an "I told you so" look.

"Can you guys walk?" I ask. JJ and Emily nod. "Emily, would you mind staying with Rossi? He's back by the jet."

I point in the general direction of the jet. "It's about a fifteen minute walk."

"Of course," she smiles. She starts walking, and I gesture to JJ to lead the way towards Tara.

When we find Tara, she's standing with Luke's arm around her shoulder. She's barely holding him up, and he looks like he's having a tough time staying conscious. Matt is sitting down near them, holding his head in his hands. 

"We were looking for you," Tara sighs. 

"Are you guys okay?" I ask, then realize how dumb that sounds.

"Matt and Luke have pretty bad concussions," Tara says. "I'm alright, though."

"I think there was some ibuprofen in the first aid kit, but other than that there isn't much I can do," I say.

We start walking back to the jet, which is a little more difficult than it sounds. The trees all look the same, and it's starting to get dark. If it weren't for my freakish memory, we would be lost by now. A few carefully placed rocks are the only reason we could find the jet, which is thankfully only a few dozen feet away from us now.

I shout out for Emily and Rossi as I pick up my walking pace. Tara and the others are behind me, relying on me and my memory.

When we get closer to the jet, I see Emily is sitting with puffy eyes. David Rossi is laying on the ground with his eyes closed.

"He's dead," Emily says, being careful not to show any emotion. "He bled over the bandages. I couldn't stop it."

The adrenaline I was running on earlier is dwindling. I don't even have time to process the death of one of my closest friends because the pain from earlier returns- but much, much stronger.

 


	3. Chapter 3

I stumble onto the ground and lean my head against the jet. I'm trying to think- why am I in pain?

"Spence?" JJ says.

I realize something- my leg. I pull up my near-shredded right pant leg and cringe as I locate the source of my agony- a large cut on the side of my leg. It practically goes from my knee to my ankle. It's starting to get infected.

"Fuck," I groan. Because my pants are black I didn't notice the blood. "JJ, I need you to take the rubbing alcohol out of my bag."

"Why? Can't you-"

"I can't physically force myself to do this- if it doesn't get cleaned I'm gonna die," I say. I can already feel the sweat on my face and I'm mentally preparing myself for how badly it's going to hurt.

JJ listens. She grabs the bottle that's half-empty out of my bag and unscrews the cap.

"Three..." she begins.

"No- don't count, just do it," I ramble.

She pours the rubbing alcohol straight onto my cut, and I try not to scream.

"How the hell were you walking around??" Tara asks.

"I guess it was the adrenaline. I was panicking trying to find all of you. I thought you could be dead," I say through partially-gritted teeth. 

When I say the last word, I glance over at Rossi, who Emily is still sitting next to.

There's no time for me to mourn. If I take a break to think about all of the bad things that have just happened, more people can get hurt. I'm the only one here who has even a tinge of survival knowledge. We were in a plane crash. There's no time to think. "Does anybody know why the plane crashed?" I ask, trying to distract myself from the searing discomfort in my leg.

"The pilot had a heart attack," Matt deadpans.

"We should go check on him-" I begin, but Matt cuts me off.

"Don't bother. He's already dead." 

"This is a disaster," I whimper. "It's getting dark. We need a fire."

"How long do you think it'll be until they find us?" Luke asks.

"Prepare for the worst," I say. "It could be days."

"Or weeks," Tara argues.

"We aren't equipped to handle this," JJ says. "This first aid kit is literally all we have."

I remember something important. "Wait.. didn't Rossi smoke cigars?"


	4. Chapter 4

Today, I took a lighter from my dead friend's pocket. I'm trying to process it; I'm trying to make sense of the fact that David Rossi, the creator of the BAU, is now dead.

I know it's my fault. I shouldn't have left him. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. I shouldn't have trusted his judgment. His blood is literally on my hands.

But at least we have a fire going. It feels so nice compared to the harsh cold of the woods. I don't even know what state we are in, but it's extremely cold at night.

Thank god for Rossi's lighter. 

"Spence?" I hear JJ say over the crackling of our make-shift fire pit.

"Yeah?"

"How do you stay so calm?" 

"I'm not calm," I say. I use a stick to move some of the twigs around in the hole we dug, pleading in my mind that our only source of heat doesn't die.

The pain in my leg isn't going away anytime soon. No matter how I sit it still hurts.

"Guys," Emily says. "Do we have any food?"

"I don't know," I say. "I'll go check in the jet."

"Absolutely not," Tara says.

"Look, I'm fine," I say. "I'll be right back."

I get up from the ground and ignore the pain in my leg. I climb the steps onto the jet. It stopped raining a few hours ago, but my shirt is still damp.

I'm wearing the same white button up and magenta sweater-vest I'm used to wearing. It's not the most convenient for our situation, but at least I'm warm.

I've been wracking my brain trying to remember what happened before I woke up, but I can't. I just can't.

I remember talking to JJ about the case, but I don't remember anything after that. Why can't I remember?

I hate being able to feel the pain. I start opening cabinets and going through luggage.

I've found a bunch of clothes and various chargers, but nothing edible. I climb into the cabin and try to ignore the dead pilot. How did Matt know he had a heart attack? Did I miss something?

I open a small compartment in the console and find a secret snack stash- a few small bags of potato chips and a snickers bar.

At least it's something. I carry what I can and start to get off the jet, but I lose my balance.

I tumble into the ground and the air is knocked out of my lungs. JJ rushes over to me. "Are you okay?"

I'm genuinely having a hard time breathing, but I sit up. "I got chips," I say, and force a smile. JJ takes the pile of food from the ground around me.

"Spence, you're an idiot," she snaps. She takes the bottle of pain meds and tosses it to me.

I roll it back to her and give her a tired look. Does she really think I'm going to take those?

I can deal with the pain. If I'm going to die out here, I'll die sober.


	5. Chapter 5

I've done the math. I'm missing at least an hour of time between that normal conversation and when I woke up.

It's bugging me. I know it shouldn't be, but it is. I pretended to be asleep so JJ would leave me alone. I'm the only one awake. Everyone else is asleep in the cabin, but I decided to make sure nothing else had happens.

I can't let another one of us die. I just can't.

Matt Simmons, Emily Prentiss, and Luke Alvez have concussions. Despite what one may believe, it's actually not bad for someone to sleep with a concussion as long as they aren't totally out of it. I think Luke's is the worst. He was having a little trouble walking when I found them.

It has started to hit me that I have no fucking clue what I'm doing. If we're careful, we can make our snacks last us a few days, maybe.

But we have one bottle of water. I decide we need to find a water source. Content with having a half-plan, I lay my head down on the couch. I can sleep.

-

It's bright and early, and I'm the first one awake. I glance over at JJ and Emily, who are huddled near eachother on a blanket on the floor. We managed to find two blankets when we looked through all of our luggage, thankfully.

I wake up JJ. She rolls over and groans, but when she opens her eyes she glares at me. "I'm going to go look for a water source. I'll be back," I say.

"Spence, that's stupid. You can't leave alone."

She's not wrong. It is stupid, but I feel like I need some time to myself. I need to think through what happened on that plane. I think they're hiding something from me.

"Like I said, I'll be back," I say, a little more sternly. I grab my messenger bag off of the ground and put the strap around my neck.

"I'm coming with you," JJ says.

"Fine," I say. Honestly, though, I feel like I dodged a bullet. I don't want to admit it, but I've been acting fairly impulsive lately. Maybe it's something about our absurd situation that makes me feel like every decision I make will be my last?

"We should at least leave a note," I say. I pull a notebook and pen out of my bag and scribble a small explanation onto a page. I tear it out and leave it on the table.

"Let's go," JJ says.

We start walking. The woods really do all look the same. The trees are dense and thick, and the terrain is rocky and full of hills. The plane didn't crash in a clearing; it landed on a few trees. They were thin and got crushed by the plane's weight.

"So," JJ begins. We've been walking in silence for a while now, "How are we going to get out of here?"

I'm used to always knowing the answer to complicated questions, but for the first time in so long, I'm clueless. "I don't know," I reply.

With our current supplies, we're screwed. There's no way they wouldn't know we're missing. We were supposed to be at the station almost twelve hours ago. After the first hour Garcia would have checked on our flight.

Garcia. She's probably worried sick. And JJ and Matt- they have families. Rossi did, too.

I'm trying to stay on the positive side of things. I'm not a positive person. Anyone who's been through what I have wouldn't be, but right now I can't afford to imagine all of the horrible ways this could end.

My watch says it's noon. It's getting hot, and because JJ and I have been walking for a while now, I suggest we take a break. Despite how many trees there are, they don't give off very much shade.

We sit down under a larger tree that has some shade under it, and though it's still hot, it feels a lot nicer. "Spence?" JJ asks.

"Yeah?"

"How long will it be until they find us?"

I hate this question. I wish I knew, but I just don't. Whatever GPS is on that jet is either fried or the signal is dead because we're in the middle of fucking nowhere.

"Let's just keep walking," I say. JJ gives me a look that I can't quite describe. I miss when things were simpler between us. Our friendship has been a mess lately, but we never had time to process it because of, well, this.

We decide to head back to the jet after a good half-hour of walking. We found nothing. No water, and nothing edible, but we can't keep walking forever. It's getting hotter.

I'm already starting to feel nauseous. If any of us gets heat stroke we'll have no way to treat it. We have no water or ice or anything cold. The water we do have has been sitting inside the jet, which isn't much cooler than outside.

I don't know which route the jet took, so I can't even narrow our location down to the state. We could be anywhere in the continental US and I wouldn't know any better.

All I know is that we're somewhere hot and dry.

I don't know if we can survive here.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't know what I was expecting to hear when we got back to the the jet, but I don't think I was expecting Luke, of all people, to yell at me. "You can't just leave!"

"I was looking for water so we don't die-"

"You're probably hiding water from the rest of us."

I don't know what to say. This is ridiculous. I take my messenger bag off of my shoulder and dump out it's contents.

A few notebooks, a novel or two, and a bunch of pens fall to the floor. I look up at Luke with a tired expression.

I start to shove my stuff back in my bag, but I can feel Luke is still staring at me. The rest of the team is watching in stunned silence.

This isn't like him. Why is he acting so strange?

"I'm not hiding anything," I mutter. I don't know if I can take it, being here like this.

-

That argument Luke and I had was the first, but it definitely wasn't the last. It's been six days since we crashed. We managed to find a small stream of water, but food is limited. It seems the only thing these woods are lacking is anything edible. No fruit, no peaceful but naive wild animals. There's nothing. Nothing but trees and coyotes.

I wake up to Matt shaking my shoulder. He sounds frantic, but I can't make out what he's saying in my sleepy haze. 

I finally register the sound of an engine. There are helicopters outside.

They found us.


	7. Chapter 7

I don't want to be in this helicopter. I don't want to leave the ground.

What if it crashes again? That horrible thought won't leave my mind.

They're taking us all to the nearest hospital. I don't think I need it. The cut on my leg isn't as bad at as it was earlier, and besides, I'm still alive. That's all that really matters. My injuries are minor.

Nevertheless, I'm having a tough time staying conscious. I feel like any moment the helicopter is going to fall out of the sky and plummet to the ground. Every time a bit of turbulence hits I can feel my stomach churn.

Apparently they found us by tracking the jet's last known location and tracing that path towards our destination. We were in the woods near the state line of Nevada and California, which explains the heat.

I keep telling them that I'm fine. Why won't they believe me? One of the paramedics said that the cut on my leg is still infected, and that I have a fever.

I feel fine. What they need to do is get to Rossi. His cut is a lot worse. Poor Rossi. I hope he feels better soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Of course I know Rossi is dead. I just... forgot, for a little while.

I let them give me morphine the first few days in the hospital. JJ says it made me loopy and she thought I didn't sound like myself. I was just glad the pain was gone.

It's been a week since we were rescued, and honestly, I don't feel any different. Being in the woods I felt like I had a purpose. I felt like I was a leader and that I had people that actually needed me.

Here I'm just... empty. I'm no one. I'm a kid in a hospital bed who can't even remember how he got injured. I'm useless.

Penelope hugged me really tight when she got to California. Her happiness was short lived.

David Rossi. It always comes back to him, like he came back to us.

It's my fault. We all know it is, but everyone has been avoiding the elephant in the room: I left him by the jet to bleed out.

It should have been me. I wish it was me.


	9. Chapter 9

The good news is they aren't going to have to amputate my leg. That's what the doctors were worried about, but my infection is starting to properly heal.

They said I'm lucky. Is this what luck feels like? I feel like I did die in the woods. Watching my friends slowly start to hate me, and watching them slowly die right in front of me- it broke me. How am I supposed to feel lucky?

At least the remaining members of the BAU are together. Rossi's funeral is a few days from now, and I'm being discharged today. Everybody else was discharged a few days ago, only having concussions and severe dehydration.

Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan will be there. I'm not ready to see them; I still haven't even seen my mom yet.

I don't think she knows the jet crashed. Maybe it's for the better. She would definitely freak out. 


	10. Chapter 10

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of David Rossi," a man in black says from the foot of Rossi's coffin. His words are blending together in my brain, and I can't make out the rest of what he's saying.

I don't recognize him, and I know he's only saying these things because it's his job. He didn't know Rossi. He didn't care about him. He probably did a quick google to find out who he was before the ceremony started.

"David Rossi was an esteemed agent in the BAU. He founded it with the help of Jason Gideon a few decades ago." I feel bitter. Rossi wouldn't want this. He'd want us to be drinkingwine and cooking Italian food in his memory.

Joy, Portia, and Krystall are staying strong, but I can tell they're upset. Why wouldn't they be?

Rossi didn't get to spend a lot of time with his daughter, but he was a good dad for the time he could be one. And Krystall... they got married again only a few months ago. 

JJ reaches her hand over to mine, but I pull away. We already ruined David Rossi's wedding with our chaos, I'm not about to let us ruin his funeral too. 

I remember all the times Rossi made fun of me. It was always in a joking manner, but at the time I felt singled out. I know I'm easy to make jokes about, but it kind of hurt.

Now I'd give anything for him to tell me to shut up. I miss him more than anything. I miss the smell of cigars on his breath when he talked. I miss that time he left me in a ditch when I could hardly walk.

I miss David Rossi so much, but there's nothing I can do. Nothing can numb me enough to get rid of the pain I feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we get an F for David Rossi


	11. Chapter 11

We're working on taking legal action against the manufacturers of the jet. Matt was half-right when he told me that the pilot had a heart attack.

I know the whole story now.

When the plane hit the ground, I hit my head pretty badly on the seat in front of me. Luke noticed the engine was smoking, and he assumed it might catch fire. It didn't, but he didn't know that at the time.

They left me on the jet. I don't blame them. I did something similar, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt.

The pilot had a heart attack because the jet was crashing. It wasn't his fault, not that it would have been his otherwise.

My lawyer says we could get millions. Each.

I don't care about the money. No amount of money or lawsuits or even _drugs_ could bring David Rossi back. I need to learn to accept that.

I'm hosting a dinner party at my apartment later. Kind of a.. celebration of life. The lives we have left. I can't cook for shit, so Emily and JJ are helping me.

It's in Rossi's honor. It's the least I can do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry the chapters got really short in the end! I hope you enjoyed though 🥺

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you’re enjoying :) kutos and comments are appreciated


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